The first official practice of the 2018 Iowa high school cross country season is today, and one Guthrie County school is adjusting to a new classification. Panorama head cross country coach Greg Thompson found out in July that the Panthers are now considered a Class 2A school district in both boys and girls cross country. The Panorama girls cross country team ended the 2017 season as the runner-up of the Class 1A State Cross Country meet in Fort Dodge, scoring 115 points. “Using our results from the state meet (last year), we would’ve probably finished (in) fourth or fifth place in the girls (state race),” Thompson said, “So I would expect us maybe in that five, six, seventh place range in Class 2A. Obviously, it’ll be a little bit tougher in 2A.”

The Panorama cross country team graduated nine total runners off last year’s team including six boys and three girls. Among the recent Panorama alumni are individual state qualifier Josh Carstens and multisports star athlete Devyn Kemble. The Panthers girls cross country team returns five of their seven varsity runners from last season while the boy’s squad has three varsity racers continuing this fall. The first meet of the 2018 Panorama cross country season is Thursday, August 23 when the Panthers will compete in the Gilbert Cross Country Invitational.